Decision report 201002440

Summary
Mrs C complained that her daughter (Mrs A) received inadequate care and treatment from Surgical Services in Stirling Royal Infirmary. Mrs C said it took the hospital six weeks to diagnose Mrs A's medical condition and that this delay could have been avoided had medical staff seen her earlier. Our investigation concluded that from Mrs A's several admissions through to her in-patient care and subsequent discharges she received appropriate care and treatment from the hospital. Although the results of a Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) test could have been recorded in more detail, our medical adviser said that Mrs A was eventually diagnosed with a rare and complex medical condition and the investigations that were carried out were appropriate. We also did not uphold the complaint that the Board failed to respond reasonably to Mrs C's complaints about this. We noted that before she brought this complaint to us the Board had already apologised for some of the issues Mrs C had raised.

Recommendation
We recommend that Forth Valley NHS Board ensure that a written record of every MUST test is completed and filed to comply with NHS record-keeping guidelines.